Friday, June 29, 2012

While taping our podcast today I quipped with the exec that the proposed
advisory board for the new Downtown Columbia Partnership includes everybody but
Santa Claus. In order to mollify criticism that the partnership board vests too
much control in the hands of the Howard Hughes Corporation, the county council
is considering eleven amendments to the enabling legislation that includes the
addition of an eleven member advisory board. According to this story by Lindsey
McPherson in Explore Howard, the advisory board “would be allowed to attend
the Board of Directors meetings.”

“The amendment specifies that a representative of the
advisory committee must be provided with an opportunity to comment on all
matters pending before the board. It also authorizes the advisory committee to
examine the partnership's books and records "at any reasonable time."

Though the advisory board members will be able to comment and examine to their hearts
delight, their influence is limited to an advisory role with no voting power. In other words it’s basically window dressing meant to appease those who fear giving HHC too
much say in how the partnership is run.

That fear is misplaced. Over the course of the next thirty
years or so, HHC will be expending tens of millions to remake Columbia Town
Center and the partnerships role is "to be the entity conducting marketing, maintenance, security, transportation and other services in downtown Columbia." It is in the companies’
best interests as the master developer to see that the project is done right.

As the largest developer of master planned communities
in the United States I don’t think they really need an overloaded advisory board to accomplish the task but it looks like they're going to get one anyway.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Last Sunday in this post, I made a light hearted jab at Joan Lancos for disqualifying me from receiving a yellow Columbia Villages bag
because I wasn't a resident of Columbia.
Today she sent me two along with a note apologizing for the slight and hoping
that “this incident won’t prevent you from saying nice things about us in the
future.”

I should note here that Joan and I both share a fond
appreciation for sarcasm.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

The news today that Allan Kittleman was cranking up his
political machinery for a run at county exec in 2014 came as a welcome surprise.
It has long been known that he was interested in the job and now he’s
become the first of the top three, or four, to lay the gauntlet down, sort of. According
to this story by Lindsey McPherson in Explore Howard, the state senator told
guests at a breakfast fundraiser that “we are putting an organization together
to anticipate we will be moving for county executive in 2014.”

The news was greeted with reserve by his rivals. Courtney Watson told Lindsey that “it's too early to discuss a race still more than two
years away.”

Guy Guzzone, on the other hand, at least admitted that he’s working
on the makings of a run for the top HoCo job. "I am putting together the
necessary pieces to make sure that option is open to me," he said.”

I think “putting together the necessary pieces” means the
same thing as “putting an organization together” in HoCo loco politico speak.

Allan has the most to gain by getting out early in this race.
Despite the inherent disadvantage of being a Repub in a predominately Dem
county, he is either the third out of three or the fourth out of four in
fundraising as near as I can tell.

The top dog with dollars is Guy. For some reason many of the
candidates 2012 Annual Campaign Reports are not yet available online so I used 2011
numbers when comparing the campaign war chests of the top three, or four. In
2011 Guy reported having $100,274 in cash on hand. Courtney had $31,785 and
Alan had $20,188. Interestingly, Calvin Ball had $40,847. I know it sounds
crazy but if Courtney and Guy decide to duke it out in a Dem primary, Calvin
could justify jumping into that fight too.

Despite Professor Cools detached demeanor towards further
political ambitions, his bank account makes him a playa.

The bottom line is that all four of these front runners are
good candidates for the job. We are fortunate for that but it will also make
decisions of who to support all the more gut wrenching…and expensive.

During this season of non declared campaigning, at least
three of the four will be ramping up the fundraising breakfasts, lunches,
cocktail receptions, and family picnics. Tickets will run from twenty some
bucks to a couple hundred some bucks and many us will attend events for each of
them, not necessarily because we plan to eventually vote for them but simply
because we know them and like them.

So while this is getting interesting it is also going to get expensive for some of us anyway, especially when you consider that our county exec is running for governor. (Tell me you knew about that, right?)

Before there was the Fiat 500, the Smart Car and the Mini,
there was the VW Beetle, the Citroen 2CV, and the Morris Minor 1000. I spotted
this 1969 Morris at the Old Mill Bakery Café just outside Ellicott
City last Sunday.

Much like the Ford pickup I wrote about in this post, what I
liked about this car was that it is not a showpiece driven only on Sundays and
other special occasions. Judging from its condition, this car appears to still be in regular service and in fairly good shape considering.

The Morris was built by BMC, better known for
producing the MGB and the MG Midget. According to this report on Epinions, “cars
built by BMC shared a large number of parts so availability of them is
still an easy and economical affair.”

“Finding and nurturing a Morris Minor 1000 through 21st
century life could be a rewarding and enjoyable experience. Still viable on
today’s roads, more economical to operate than some new economy cars, and
easily restored, a Morris Minor 1000 might be the best answer to a new Mini or Smart
Car purchase.”

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Though some folks may look down their noses at loco bloggers
as nothing more than nattering nabobs, at least one of us backs his words with a call for direct action.

For the third time in less than two years, Tom Coale, the author of HoCo
Rising, has harnessed his blog energy to rally support for the HoCo loco
homeless. Last year, thanks to a fundraising campaign he spearheaded on his
blog, over $3,000 was raised for Grassroots enabling the loco charity to
establish a sober house in the county.

Now he’s at it again. Yesterday Tom began a new campaign to
raise $2,300 for Living in Recovery in order that they may open a second sober
house.

I have often said that it is the readers who make loco
blogging so rewarding and Tom’s efforts shown just how rewarding that can be.
The loco blog readers have shown that they are not just interested in reading
and commenting on loco stuff, they are also committed to fixing stuff. As he wrote in this post, the loco blog reader is “not satisfied
to watch public need and chat about it with removed fascination. We do
things.”

Indeed.

If you haven’t done so already, you can learn more and help
make a difference here.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Last night I took Peanut to the relatively new “Scoop Ahh Dee Doo" ice cream stand in EllicottCity. Earlier last week I
sampled their frozen confections for the first time and was blown away by a
flavor called Honey Graham. It was just like graham crackers only ice cream, if
that makes any sense.

Peanut decided to try one of her favorite flavors,
strawberry. After only a few bites she declared that it was the best strawberry
ice cream she’d ever had. “It’s like eating a fat angel,” she said.

I’m not sure exactly where that expression came from but I
took it to be high praise.

I was tempted to try the Berger Cookie flavor but the Honey
Graham so good the first time I decided to get it again.

The setting is pretty terrific too. Peanut and I took our
ice cream over to a bench by the river and soaked in the summer evening while listening to the water cascading over the rocks just below us. It was just like eating a
fat angel.

We’re heading down there again tonight. I've been thinking about that Berger Cookie flavor all day.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

It is somewhat unfortunate that Columbia’s forty fifth birthday celebration
had to fall on the weekend after LakeFest. The temptation to unfavorably compare
the two events is almost too great.

It would also be unfair.

Columbia’s
birthday party is more hyper loco than the regionally marketed LakeFest. This
was bought home to me almost as soon as I arrived. Passing by the Columbia
Villages booth, Joan Lancos started to hand me a Columbia Villages reusable
shopping bag but then pulled back explaining “You don’t live inColumbia do you?”

I’m a Columbia
expat. No yellow shopping bag for me.

Despite the shopping bag stiff I lingered for awhile talking
loco politico stuff with Joan long enough to eventually elicit an audible sigh from
Peanut. We moved on, without a yellow shopping bag.

Passing in front of Clyde’s
I showed Peanut the brick I bought her. I don’t think it made that great of an
impression with her. Perhaps she’ll grow more comfortable with the whole brick thing over time.

As we were inspecting the decorated umbrellas lined up along
the dock, a couple came by with a young golden retriever, named Dakota. The
owner (I believe her name was Claire) asked me if I was a blogger. I pleaded
guilty and she proceeded to tell me that she is a regular reader. “I’m a lurker
though,” she said, “not a commenter.”

I immediately liked her. The fact that she and husband had a
sweet golden retriever only made it better. I thanked her for recognizing me and being a
reader. That is one the best parts of hyper loco blogging for me, random
encounters with HoCo locos that I otherwise may have never met.

As we settled in to watch I noticed a young couple had found
themselves a private perch to watch the show. I wondered how long it would be
before someone told them to get down. It was approximately fifteen minutes.
Still, for the moment they were getting away with it, it made a perfect summer
picture.

As we left, I grabbed one of the available Sharpies and
penned my birthday greetings to Columbia
on the birthday cake replica set up for this purpose. I may no longer qualify
for a free yellow shopping bag but I still love my old hometown all the same. Happy 45th!

Friday, June 22, 2012

You might think that,with the long awaited and much debatedColumbiaTownCenter
redevelopment process finally underway, the county council would be celebrating their accomplishment and working to move things forward as smoothly as possible.

Hardly. Last night, two of the council members got fairly testy with the developer over what appears to be a fundamental misunderstanding of business , capital and risk.

In a work session on the enabling legislation
for a new Commercial District Management Authority (CDMA) for TownCenter,
tempers were raised and threats were implied over the issue of who will control
this authority. As it has been proposed by the exec, the
Downtown Columbia Partnership would be governed by a board of seven members,
four of whom would be from the Howard Hughes Corporation, giving HHC majority
control.

Jen Terrasa and Calvin Ball seem to think that's a bit too much. They expressed a certain discomfort with allowing a developer to have so much
control over the TownCenter redevelopment program, even though it isn't the county's money at risk.

This is a potential deal killer for HHC.

They are the ones putting real money into Downtown Columbia Partnership, both in new commercial development fees and in funding public amenities. In addition to immediately stroking a check for $1.5
million for affordable housing, HHC will be funding the renovation of
Merriweather and a variety of transportation and environmental initiatives.
Estimates of their total investment in TownCenter
runs into the tens of millions.

Of course they want to control the authority, at least initially.
They are the only ones with real skin in the game. As John DeWolf told the
council, HHC is still committed to the project as long as they can manage the risk. He further suggested that they are uniquely qualified to accomplish that.
He wryly pointed out that when HHC took over this project “there wasn’t anyone else lined up outside the door to buy this (TownCenter redevelopment) separately.”

Greg Fox and Courtney Watson seemed to get that. They
attempted to get their council colleagues to give HHC some sort of reassurance
that they’d work this out. HHC is up against some critical dates in the development process and needs to have this resolved sooner rather than later. Calvin and Jen balked. Mary Kay Sigaty, the current
council chair, was silent.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

I realize I’m a little late to the partyon this but I’ve finally
gotten around to watching The Wire. I really don’t like coming into the middle
of a series and trying to get in sync with the seasons by using On Demand was
too much brain damage.

Then my neighbor Peter told me about HBO Go. I love HBO Go. I
now can start at the beginning of any of their series (Sopranos, Game of Thrones, Deadwood, and The Wire of course) and keep going right up to the
latest episodes, if any.

I also love The Wire. What’s not to love? It’s all about the
city of my birth, B-more.
It’s not pretty but neither is life in the big city sometimes. More than anything it’s familiar. The
scenes from the city make the story all the more real for me not to mention the fact that the scenes from inside the Major Crimes unit offices were likely all filmed in HoCo. I’ve spotted our
former guv in at least two episodes and the mayor in the series is inspired by the
current guvs stint as mayor.

The episode openings are one of my favorite parts. While the
opening credits roll, the blues song “Way Down in the Hole,” plays in the
background. Each season a different artist performed the song. In Season 1 it
was The Blind Boys of Alabama, Season 2, Tom Waits, Season 3, The Neville
Brothers, Season 4, DoMaJe, and Season 5, Steve Earle.

I’m in the fifth and final season now. These episodes start
with Steve Earle’s version. Looking back on the previous four seasons I've started thinking about which version I like the best. It's pretty interesting what the five separate artists do with the same song. I think Steve Earle’s take on
"Hole" is my second favorite.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

In the two plus years since we started, we’ve had every
member of the county council on our podcast except Jen Terrasa. It’s not like
we haven’t tried. Our latest attempt was for the show we taped this past
Monday. At least two weeks prior we reached out to her and she indicated that
she was interested in joining us but demurred from making an actual commitment.
She told us she’s get back to us.

As late as Wednesday last week she still hadn’t gotten back
to us. We were running out of time. It was four days before the show and we
didn’t know if we had a guest or not. That night I attended her fundraiser at Kings
Contrivance and when I got a moment to speak with her I asked again if she was
coming on the show.

“Can I let you know tomorrow?” she asked.

"Sure, but please let us know by then so we can make other plans if you can't do it." I replied.

Last night, as I passed through Ellicott
City, I spotted this 1961 Ford pickup parked across from the
Phoenix Emporium. Though unremarkable in terms of restoration, it caught my
attention from a historic perspective.

In 1961 a pickup truck just like this would have been a
familiar sight on Main Street.
In that pre-Columbia period HoCo was largely an agrarian county and EC was the
center of commerce. In those days E.T. Clarkes Hardware was next door to
the Phoenix.

When I take a picture of an interesting auto for To2C, I always
make some attempt to find the owner. Since it was parked directly across the
street from the bar I thought this would be as good a place as any to make an inquiry. I enlisted the aid of Ashley, the
bartender, who in turn asked the other patrons at the bar. She came up blank. I spoke with John the
bouncer too. He hadn't seen the truck yet and went to the door to check it out.

“Not a very good paint job,” John observed. It turns out
that John is a bit of a car guy himself and we talked cars while I finished my beer.

Considering that the truck is over fifty years old, I’d have
to say that its paint job is more than serviceable. It doesn’t look like a
showpiece. It just looks right at home.

Yesterday my colleague TW paraphrased Yogi Berra in
describing the new Columbia Wegmans store. “It’s so busy that nobody is going to
go there,” he commented after seeing the queue of cars waiting to get into the
parking garage. He opted to take a pass.

I had a decidedly different experience less than an hour later.
The store was still busy but the traffic was moving and I was immediately directed
into a convenient parking space by a helpful Wegmans employee.

Though I did have a couple of items on my grocery list this
trip was really to just to check the place out. Prior to this visit, the
only other Wegmans I had been in was their store in HuntValley.

The Columbia Wegmans is nicer. For one thing, HuntValley
doesn’t have outdoor seating for the café.

Though I wasn’t intending to pick up dinner, a pass through
the Market Café soon changed my mind. I picked up a pound of Italian sausage
with peppers and onions and half pound of Kansas
City rice for $9.53. It was plenty of food for two
people.

It occurred to me that it’s not only
the existing grocery stores that should be concerned about this new competitor.
Wegmans could alter the paradigm of the HoCo loco carry-out business as well. Why
settle for pizza when, for the same amount of money, you can get Tuscan ribs or
Etruscan salmon?

On my way out the door I stopped to check out the grocery
cart escalator. I had read that it had broken down on opening day so I wasn’t
surprised to see an employee stationed at the foot of the escalator helping
customers acclimate to this new technology. It seemed to be working just fine.

“It was only down for about a half hour on opening day,” the cart guy told me. That apparently was just long enough to get the attention of the Explore
Howard reporter, Pete Pichaske

Monday, June 18, 2012

I was happy to hear this because I missed last years
performance. That night Mama Wordbones and I attended the performance of "A Midsummer’s
Night Dream" at Shakespeare in the Ruins instead.

As it turns out I almost missed them again because of my
college reunion. Fortunately, this year the festival made the Portland based performance troupe their closing performance. After getting home and unpacking
yesterday, I headed over to TownCenter to catch the show.

The March Fourth Marching Band is a perfect fit for a summer festival. Their high energy show is infectious and last night, in very short
order, they had the audience dancing and waving arms. You can’t help but smile
when you hear them perform.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

When I informed a colleague that I was traveling to Cleveland this weekend to
attend my 35th college reunion I was met with a half smile and a
quizzical look that said “really?”

Really.

Like graduations, spring is also a time for college reunions. I understand that reunion programs can vary widely from school to school, particularly
in the larger ones but when it comes to hosting a reunion weekend, my little
alma mater does a pretty bang up job.

I haven’t attended every reunion in our quinquennium
reunion cycle, but I’ve been to more than a few and I’ve always had a great time. Not only do I reconnect with old classmates, I also get to interact with other generations that passed through the same halls and grounds on their way to
adulthood. We share a common bond from a formative time of our lives that allows us
to relate to each other across the decades that separate us.

This year the oldest class in attendance at my reunion was
the Class of 57. The initiates to our five year tribal gathering were the Class
of 2007. Like my own clan did thirty years ago, the twentysomethings kept the
party going until the wee hours of the morning. At the other end of continuum, the thinning
ranks of classes older than ’57 were consolidated into a “golden” group. The
oldest registered attendee was from the class of 1936.

This morning, in the courtesy shuttle back to the airport,
four generations of alumni were represented. There was a guy from Los Angeles from the Class of 1962, a couple from Fort Lauderdale from the Class of 2002, Ellicott City from the Class of 1977 and with our Cleveland
native shuttle driver, the Class of 2013. Though none of us had ever
met before, in no time at all each was sharing stories and experiences. By the
time we arrived at the airport everyone wished each other a safe journey home
and expressed a hope that we’d meet again in five years.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

The history of Ellicott City's Wayside Inn predates the creation of HowardCounty.
When the granite stone house on Old Columbia Pike began hosting overnight
guests back in 1780, HoCo was still part of AnneArundelCounty.

The roadside inn has seen many travelers passing through HoCo
over those years, including rumored visits of George Washington and John Adams.

I know for certain that it was at least visited by Jim Robey.
According to the Inn’s website, in 2004, to
celebrate the latest “reopening” following an extensive renovation, then county
exec Jim Robey cut the ceremonial ribbon.

The inn is now listed with rock-star HoCo realtor, Creig Northrop. The asking price
is $1.2 million and the listing says it “May also be purchased for
single-family or multi-family use.”

In other words you don’t have to run the property as bed and breakfast anymore if you buy it. After 232 years, it's days of hosting HoCo visitors may now be coming to an end.

In a way, it really isn’t much of roadside inn anymore. Before they
built the hulking sound barrier right across the street, the inn with its
candles in the windows was a HoCo loco landmark, visible to all travelers
passing by on the county’s main artery.

Nowadays, the only traffic that passes its door are the
members of the Forest Hill Swim Club and HoCo locos taking the back way to
Dorsey’s Search. Folks passing through HoCo on their way from Point A to Point B wouldn't even know it was there.

This was the first time I’ve attended a Jen Terrasa
fundraiser. That, in and of itself, is not surprising. I supported her opponent in the last election. She ended up kicking his butt.

“American woman she gonna mess your mind.”

The Corner Stable was packed and not with just the usual
HoCo loco politico suspects either. Rank and file citizens filled the room
along with an impressive turnout of the loco Dem power structure. Dem council
colleagues Mary Kay Sigaty and Calvin Ball were there but Courtney Watson was
not. Jen’s council seat predecessor, Guy Guzzone, acted as master of
ceremonies.

Courtney wasn’t there because she was also having a Wine Women
and Watson event tonight. I don’t know who scheduled what first but HoCo is
really too small for two politico fundraisers in the same night. A couple of
the ladies I spoke with this evening were bugging early on the Jen jamboree to
dash across town to wine with Watson. Others, including at least one loco elected Dem told me they wouldn’t have wined with Watson even if it was the only loco politico event this evening. Ouch!

“Colored lights can hypnotize, Sparkle someone else's eyes”

It wasn’t just Dems at Jen’s party either. Former Repub
county exec candidate Steve Adler was there. His Savage Mill development is in
Jen’s district after all. Steve was leaving as I arrived but he had a great
parting quip. “A Dem fundraiser and a Jewish Federation dinner in the same
night, all I need now is a root canal.”

“You're no good for me, I'm no good for you”

I also met Jackie Scott tonight. Jackie is one of the good
candidates running for school board. She’s even better in person than she is in writing.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

The Room Store's days in Columbia may be numbered. The low priced furniture chain filed for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December with hopes that
they could reemerge as a going concern.

That may no longer be the case. In April the chain exited
the Texas
market where it got its start by closing ten stores. Now the rest of the stores may be on the
chopping block. According to this story by Gregory J. Gilligan in the Richmond
Times-Dispatch, the company has asked the bankruptcy judge “to allow the
beleaguered chain to sell its assets at an auction.”

“The stores and inventory could be sold in their entirety to
a buyer that would continue running some or all of the locations, or piecemeal
to a variety of buyers.”

Monday, June 11, 2012

It was during a recent walk with Mama Wordbones that I began
contemplating the fate of the poor mailbox. As we crossed through an established
neighborhood in Ellicott City I noticed that
many of the homeowners had landscaped around their mailboxes. Some had flowers
and shrubs while others were a bit more elaborate.

“That’s something you won’t see in Columbia,” I said in reference to the planned
communities cluster mailboxes.

She was a bit surprised to find out that even single family
homes in Columbia are serviced by these communal mail receptacles.

“I don’t think I’d like that,” she said

It’s almost irrelevant anymore. The mailbox is not the
conduit to the larger world that it once was. It’s place in our content
delivery hierarchy has slipped to a lower tier. It is conceivable that, in my
lifetime, I will witness the phasing out of regular delivery of mail by an
agency of the federal government.

I’d be okay with that. Providing mail service to every
single household in the United
States is a very expensive proposition. The
USPS has over 574,000 employees, operates 31,000 postal facilities, and owns
over 218,000 vehicles. It last reported net revenue in 2006. Since then the
losses have been in the billions.

The argument for keeping the USPS is that it reaches every single
home in the country, urban, rural, rich, poor and everyone in between.
Not everyone has broadband but everyone, except perhaps the homeless, has a mailing
address.

Still, at the rate these USPS losses are accumulating, we might
be better off giving everyone a 4G iPad.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

“Where did the weekend go,” I thought to myself as I cleaned up after Sunday dinner. Here it was the night before another work week and
it felt like another weekend had flown by.

That’s not to say I didn’t have fun. Friday was the last day
of school and Peanuts last day of middle school. Unlike some private schools,
Ellicott Mills did not have an elaborate eighth grade graduation ceremony. They
had a formal dance on Wednesday and a nice little assembly on the last day but no caps
and gowns scene. I think that’s a little too much, for eighth grade anyway.

We marked the occasion beginning with lunch outside at
Johnny’s Main Street Bistro in Ellicott City and later with one of her one of her favorite meals enjoyed under the stars at
home. In between we launched our summer reading project while sitting in the
white rocking chairs on the screened in porch.

Saturday night Mama Wordbones and I narrowed our outside
dining choices down to Eggspectation and Rams Head Tavern in Savage Mill. We
concluded that the food quality was about the same at both places but Rams Head
won out on ambiance. The outside deck at the old mill overlooking the river won out over the
best storm water management view in Columbia.

After breakfast this morning Peanut and I set off to try and
find nectarines, one of her favorite fruits. I realize that it is too early for
loco nectarines but with all of these farmers markets going on around here, I
figured somebody would have nectarines. We started with the Second Sunday Market in Ellicott City but it was fruitless.
We then headed over to Catonsville where the
market held more offerings but nary a nectarine. On a whim we decided to check
out the Green Valley Market in Elkridge and was there that we found our
nectarines. This grocery store has the warm feel of a real community market as
opposed to the bigger chain grocers.

After we returned home, unprompted, Peanut suggested that we
spend a little time reading together. I asked her what she thought of Game of Thrones so far.

“Awesome,” was her response.

Sigh. So far so good.

I don’t know exactly where the weekend went but the journey along the way was awesome.

Friday, June 08, 2012

I just downloaded Game of Thrones Book One on to my Nook. After trying out the free sample last night I still wasn’t certain it would
make the cut. Today however, as I drove to pick Peanut up from her last day of middle school, it occurred to me that this just might be my best stealth summer
study opportunity. Peanut and I will read the book together, I decided, preferably at the
same time.

Left to her own devices, she would be just as happy
lounging around and playing on her computer all summer long. That of course is
not an option when she enters the dreaded sphere of my parental control. We do stuff, all kinds of stuff. She often tells me I'm "annoying."

A few weeks ago, while having dinner, I asked her if she’d
ever heard of “Game of Thrones.”

“I’ve heard the kids at school talk about it,” she said, “but
I haven’t seen it.”

We discussed the fact that it probably isn’t appropriate for
her age but accepted the fact that she’s already been exposed to as much
already. Twilight and New Moon are not our parent’s vampire stories, if you
catch my drift.

“It has dragons in it,” I told her. I knew she would rise to
this bait. She loves dragons. Wait until she gets a load of the Calisi.

Anyway, we watched the first episode of the first season on
my iPad that night and that set the hook in. This afternoon I decided to
exploit the initiative. I purchased a paperback version of the book for her and
we sat outside in the screened in room with cool drinks and jumped right in. We won’t watch
any more episodes’ together until we’ve caught up to that point in the book.

Back in my primary school days I remember being given a
summer reading list on the last day of school. Back then spending any of
those precious lazy days of summer with my nose in book was very low on my to-do
list. It was only through parental dictates that the list was cracked at all.

Nowadays reading a good book is one of my favorite summer pastimes
and I find myself seeking out summer reading lists, particularly now that I find myself
between books. Having just finished and thoroughly enjoying the Steve Jobs biography
by Walter Isaacson, I’m hoping to find something that will keep me similarly
engaged. The problem is that there are almost too many choices. I’ve poured
through the NY Times Book Review, The Washington Post Style Section and the
HoCo Library website. I’ve downloaded samples of books on my Nook and taken
them for test run, including Fifty Shades of Grey. Yesterday I checked out what
some national politicos are reading in this list in The Washington Post; Barbara
Mikulski is reading Cleopatra, Chris Matthews is reading “They Eat Puppies Don’t They” and Virginia Guv, Robert McDonnell is reading one of the books on my short
list, "Washington:A Life.” I’m a little partial to biographies too. The guv and I apparently share that.

The good news is that my list is finally narrowing and I’ll likely
make my first summer reading pick today or tomorrow.

“I shouldn’t have to point this out, but I will: You might
be able to continue reading from a printed book that accidentally takes a dip
in the ocean, but a waterlogged e-reader is as unusable as an empty tube of
suntan oil.”

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

If you ordered a brick from the Columbia Association in the latest batch you can go visit it now in the walkway in front of Clyde’s. The other day, after lunch, I went to check them out and saw that the blogging
community was pretty well represented. In addition to yours truly, I also
spotted a Columbia Compass family brick and a hocoblogs brick.

Did I miss anyone else?

And then there was this brick. Six years later and the sudden recall
of this tragedy still hit me hard.

If you did buy a brick and want to find it the best I can
tell you is to go to the walkway along the lakefront in front of Clyde’s and look for the newer bricks. The shiny new ones kind of stand out from the older bricks who’ve endured the weight of HoCo humanity for years. After that, you are on your own. Just be careful not to run
into anybody as you search the sidewalk with your head down.

Two years ago, weekend revelry at the Patuxent River in Savage got a little out of hand and loco residents petitioned the county to do something about it.

I thought about that recently as Mama Wordbones and I took our chairs down to the Patapsco River for a Sunday afternoon chill out. The water was clear and cool and the sun was perfect. We were also not alone.

It wasn't crowded. There was a group of four young women wading in the water and a family of four just getting ready to leave. Further up the river we could hear sounds of a little more raucous group taking turns on a rope swing.

In other words, there was revelry but it rather reserved as revelry goes. Nobody seemed to be bothering anyone.

Monday, June 04, 2012

With only thirteen days to go before the Columbia Wegmans
opens, I recently learned that, on April 11th, the Maryland
Court of Special Appeals upheld the HoCo Circuit Court’s dismissal of the Kendall/Rousseau
lawsuit that attempted to keep the popular grocer out of Columbia.

You may recall that Phillip Rousseau is the guy who
complained that the new store would threaten his health by the increasing the diesel fumes on Snowden River Parkway. Phil’s house backs up to Snowden River Parkway.

Paul Kendall, Phillip Rousseau, Carvel Mays and Frank Martin originally filed suit to not only stop Wegmans but also to overturn every HoCo
zoning decision for the past fifteen years. They even sought a Fed takeover of
the HoCo land use process. They lost and appealed every court battle. Those
appeals have now apparently been exhausted, just like everyone else concerned
with this case.

Thanks to To2C netizen, Lotsabogeys, for staying on top of
these convoluted legal proceedings over the years and providing me with
updates.

And speaking of Wegmans…

My new Wegmans Shoppers Club card arrived in the mail today, along with a
coupon for a free 8 oz bottle of Wegmans Basting Oil. After reading this description of the product by Kurt Kulzer in the Wegmans blog I’m anxious to
try it out.

“Basting Oil was released in August 2003.It had
a sleek looking bottle and an elegant label. Soon, you were roasting Brussels
sprouts or cauliflower and telling us how your kids were eating vegetables
without argument.”

They also included a coupon for a free reusable shopping
bag. We can always use another one of those.

In our politically polarized world, there are still two things that can engender disdain from both sides of the aisle, robocalls and bandit or snipe signs. Snipe
signs of course are those roadside signs that hold messages like “we buy
houses,” and “credit repair ” along with a phone number to call. Unlike
robocalls, snipe signs are prohibited in HoCo but that doesn’t seem to stop the loco proliferation of the signs. As fast as public works crews remove them, new ones pop up in their
place.

In Hollywood,
Florida, local officials have
begun using the legal nuisance, robocalls, to fight back against the illegal
nuisance, snipe signs. According to this story by Robbie Brown in The New York
Times, “some coastal communities have begun aggressive campaigns against the
signs — by robocalling the advertisers’ phone numbers.”

“It’s the only crime I know of where a person deliberately
leaves their phone number behind,” said Mayor Peter Bober of Hollywood, which uses computer software to
call the phone numbers, up to 20 times per day, until offenders pay a $75 fine.
“They want us to call. So let’s call. And keep calling.”

The whole episode was captured on the iPhone of Chuck
Bubeck, the president of Ease.

“Mall security showed up and the animal control woman was
able to scoop up the ducklings into the carrier one at a time as mom looked on
nervously. Once they were all safely in the carrier, she walked the
carrier to a the gassy area parallel to LPP with the mom trailing behind where
they were released and reunited with mom (video). The mama was a wreck
over her babies being trapped and when I approached to take these shots she was
careful to keep me back from the rescue action.”

In sharing this story over the weekend some of my friends have
commented that this was nothing but a big waste of county money. I disagree.
It’s not as if we don’t already have the resources in place to handle things like this.
Animal Control has to deal with some pretty heartbreaking stuff so it’s
nice to see when their work has a happy ending too.

The night before this week’s podcast I attended a concert at Merriweather and ended up staying out way too late for a work night. Consequently
I wasn’t as sharp as I would have liked to be for the show. Even though Paul
and I had worked through the sequence of news stories at lunch, I screwed it up
at least twice. I even forgot to do the show closing.

Even with my missteps I think it was a pretty good show. Alice Giles, our guest,
is sharp and funny. The HoCo League of Women’s Voters is lucky to have her as a
spokesperson. She’s almost convinced me to become a member. I just have to get
over that name thing. That isn’t a problem for Calvin Ball or Greg Fox, who are
both members. Ken Ulman, on the other hand, isn’t.

And speaking of Calvin, in the loco news recap portion of
the podcast we tossed around his legislative initiative to extend the term limits for council members. Paul suggested that extending the term limits would
create a sort of parking lot for loco politico ambitions. If a certain councilperson decided that they wanted to sit out the next county executive
race to wait for the next election cycle, they would theoretically be able to
continue serving on the council while awaiting their shot.

At the end of the show we decided to randomly stop shoppers
in The Mall and ask them about the banning of 50 Shades of Grey in public
libraries. This is always a fun thing to do and I’d like to thank the four folks
who agreed to be part of it. For everyone we asked who agreed at least one
other said no. We promised all of them anonymity.

You can listen to the latest edition of “and then there’s
that…” here.

Saturday, June 02, 2012

Back in March I decided to begin featuring the occasional video
of my daughter’s choosing. Peanut is a teenager about to enter her first year
of high school. She plays Minecraft and watches YouTube videos more than she
watches regular television.

She has shown me things that make me laugh. What surprised
me most though was the realization that I’m probably the last person on earth
to see this. This particular video has been viewed by over 14 million people.

Yesterday around 4:30 PM, as I sat at the traffic light at Bloomsbury Avenue
and Frederick Road
in Catonsville, the sky suddenly darkened as
the intensity of the rain increased. My smartphone chirped signaling a new email
message just as the light turned green.

I decided to concentrate instead on maneuvering through
streets that were quickly becoming flooded as storm drains struggled to handle
the torrential downpour.

I had almost made it home when I encountered a newly fallen
tree blocking my passage on New Cut Road in Ellicott City.

A u-turn and minor detour finally bought me to the shelter
of my garage. As turned off the engine, I picked up my phone to check the
message that came in earlier. It was from Notify Me Howard warning me that
conditions were ripe for a tornado in Catonsville.

“Take cover now. Move to an interior room or the lowest
floor of a sturdy building and avoid windows. If outdoors or in a mobile home
or vehicle…move to the closest substantial shelter and protect yourself from
flying debris.”

Friday, June 01, 2012

It’s been awhile since I last attended a concert at
Merriweather. It’s not that I haven’t been interested in any of the shows; it
has more to do with my general dislike of navigating through big crowds,
particularly once a show is over.

I still don’t care for the post show exit herd but last night it was
a small price to pay for an otherwise perfect evening in downtown Columbia. The weather was
perfect and the sellout performance by the Zac Brown Band was as about as good as it
gets.

I have a very long history with Merriweather. The first show
I ever attended was The Who in the summer before I went to high school. Later I
went on to work at the outdoor theatre every summer until I graduated from college. I was
an usher, security guard, groundskeeper and stagehand. Working at Merriweather
was the best job(s) I ever had.

It’s changed a good deal since the years I worked there, mostly for
the better. Columbia and HoCo owes a debt of gratitude to Seth Hurwitz and Jean Parker for breathing new life into
Merriweather after the former promoter almost almost ran it into the ground.
Kudos also go out to Ian Kennedy and Justin Carlson who launched the Save Merriweather effort back in 2003. Nowadays Merriweather is poised to play a
starring role in the makeover of Columbia’s
urban core.

It sure bought life to downtown last night. Before the show,
Union Jack’s patio was hopping with concert goers. At 11:00 PM, as we headed
back to our cars, it was still going on.

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This is a personal web log about stuff around here. The opinions and views of the blogger are just that, opinions and views of the blogger, not the bloggers employer, parish priest, probation officer or anyone else for that matter. Comments posted here may be attributable to others. If the content presented here offends you in some way you are probably taking yourself too seriously. If it is journalism that you are looking for, buy a newspaper.